Hey guys! it's time for an upgrade my CPU is being a bottleneck, so i would love upgrading to something newer.. The main purpose of the PC is to play some lol/bf3 maybe sim city.. This is my current setup: Cooler master case (don't know which model) 4 GB ram Some old Mobo Core 2 dou E8400 3Ghz No name PSU 430W Nvidia 560 TI 90 GB corsair ssd (the red one) 500 GB seagate for programs and so on. I'm only planning on reusing the GFX, SSD and HDD.. Budget: 400£ - the lower the better.. I would like a silent case, sometimes when i play games i can hear the gfx fan.. or maybe a case with good airflow - or both? i was thinking about i3-3220 as CPU maybe with another cooler (I'm not going to OC) so what should i buy? i can maybe raise the budget a little if needed..
Dual core is this day and age is too limiting for gaming purposes. i5-3570k (£170) [If you are 100% sure of not wanting to ever overclock, you can maybe save £20-25 by stepping down to a non-k i5 model] Corsair 8GB (£40) [Can be exchanged with any reputable brand as RAM isn't very important] Fractal R4 (£80) Cooler Master Hyper 212 (£25) [cheap and quiet cooler, especially if no OC] MSI Z77A-G43 (£80) Prices taken from Amazon UK or Scan UK.
Dude, I have the same GPU. A have a core i3 and I came from an old Core 2 duo as well. If you have the budget, go for the 3570k with a 600w psu. I have a CX600 from corsair, works nicely without any faults. But if you don't have a lot of money, go for the i3. I have a 3220 and I see a world of difference.
- Core i5 3470 (£155): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-6mb-smart-cache-32x-ratio-77 Alternatively, a 3450, as the 3470 seems to be out of stock. You can go even cheaper if you don't mind a dual core, e.g. a Pentium G860 is probably fine for Sim City but maybe not BF3 or future games. edit: Actually, a friend of mine just bought a G860 and a 7850 the other day and he gets 50fps out of BF3 at 1080p. - Any B75 board, such as this one (£48): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...iii-6gb-s-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-dvi-d-micro-atx However, avoid low end MSI boards. For example the G43 boards don't have any kind of voltage settings (rendering the Z77 board suggested above practically useless for overclocking). - Seasonic G-360 (£49): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/360w-seasonic-psu-g-360-80-plus-gold-12cm-silent-fan-dc-dc Seems to be out of stock though. There is always the Corsair CX430 and the CX430M if you are fine with a mediocre unit. Plus a case and a CPU cooler of your liking and some 1600MHz RAM.
The i5 3330 is also a consideration and is only £135 if you shop around and then I agree with mm vr about a b75 mobo, ram and cooler!
If you want to stretch the budget, or you're not sure about the CPU end of things - you could consider what I did. I bought a Z77-D3H (decent, capable overclocking board) and threw the cheapest Sandy Bridge Pentium available at the time in there. When/if I need to, I can jump straight to an i5/i7k. And I'll probably do that when they're being phased out and are cheap. Will it limit you in some games? Sure. But it gives you a degree of future-proofing whilst still being way faster than your C2D. I came from a socket 939 Athlon where I'd run the same plan. Except there I went all out with an Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe and the cheapest chip available. Then when they started to move sockets, I picked up a dual core San Diego chip for £40 which is still happily running Windows 7 and Office for my little sister. Remember that whatever you buy will eclipse your C2D for efficiency AND power, so no need to necessarily have the latest and greatest. For Battlefield, GPU is more important...
